Forensic History

  • 1200

    13th Century China

    13th Century China
    There was a stabbing and so they collected all the knives and when flies started getting attracted to one they got the suspect to confess
  • Mathieu Orfila

    Mathieu Orfila
    The "father of toxicology" because he published a paper on the detection of poisons and their effects on animals
  • William Herschel

    William Herschel
    Used thumbprints on documents to identify workers in India
  • Alphonse Bertillon

    Alphonse Bertillon
    "Father of Criminal Identification" Developed Anthropomtry which uses body measurements to identify individuals
  • Henry Faulds

    Henry Faulds
    Used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent burglary suspect
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    Published his first Sherlock Holmes story, considered the first "CSI" novel
  • Francis Galton

    Francis Galton
    Conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification, gave proof of their uniqueness
  • Hans Gross

    Hans Gross
    Wrote the first paper describing the application of the scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation
  • Karl Landsteiner

    Karl Landsteiner
    Discovered the ABO blood groups, won a Nobel Prize
  • Edmond Locard

    Edmond Locard
    Incorpoarted Gross' principles within a workable crime lab, became the founder and director of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyons, France
  • Albert S. Osborn

    Albert S. Osborn
    Developed the fundamental principles of document identification
  • Leone Lattes

    Leone Lattes
    Developed a method for determining blood type from dried blood
  • August Vollmer

    August Vollmer
    Established the first crime lab in the US located in Los Angeles
  • Calvin Goddard

    Calvin Goddard
    Developed a comparison microscope, first to compare bullets to see if fired from the same weapon